The Last Kiwi Rant (And Some Travel Tips)

Hello everyone!

So here we are, at the very end of our journey through New Zealand. We sold our car, gave away the knick-knacks we picked up on the way and packed away the road atlas. We are done with the endless packing and unpacking of the tent, cooking soups in the dark of night, brushing teeth with bottled water and peeing in smelly outhouse toilets... We are done with camping!

Well, ok, we might still have to pee in smelly outhouse toilets in Australia, but our accommodation will be upgraded to a rented campervan. Not only are we sick of tenting, we also think of all the toothy and toxic creatures that lurk in the Australian wild. Building a tent after dark is really much safer in New Zealand, where all you might encounter is a curious weka or, more likely, a swarm of sand flies. Not that we're really all that worried about the venomous nature of Australia, but - why not be smart about it?

So we're back in Auckland after our last 3-day side trip to the nearby Coromandel Peninsula. After the hectic 2-week race through the South Island, it was nice to take it easy again and not have to drive 5 hours a day. We soaked in hot pools, visited a mineral gem museum, toured an ostrich farm, hugged a giant kauri tree, visited the famous hot water beach (where you can dig in your own little hot tub in the sand), passed under the magnificent Cathedral Cove - a passageway through a rock of cathedral size that leads from one beach to another, and we played in the weird wonderworld of Waiau Waterworks - an amusement park powered by water pumps and a lot of engineering creativity. (Check the photos later!) After all this, we concluded this little trip with a fire on Cook Beach - the original landing place of Capt. James Cook on his discovery voyage to New Zealand. What a perfect ending to our NZ adventure!

It's been really great here. After 3 months, we can say we saw most of the country, but not nearly everything. In terms of landscape, New Zealand is spectacularly beautiful almost everywhere, otherwise it's "just" plain picturesque. In terms of culture, New Zealand is like a colony of Brits who moved to southern California and took up surfing, but didn't give up cricket. They drive on the left and have the Queen on their coins, but wear Billabong clothes and speak in 1980's California slang. They love to travel, but have a hard time distinguishing east from the west (maybe because they have that upside-down view of the world?). They put canned spaghetti on toast and beet root on burgers, but will never EVER serve you a bad cup of coffee. They call themselves Kiwis and shorten every word that is over 6 letters: grandchildren=grandies, Australian=Aussie, mosquito=mossie, breakfast=breakie...etc. They love travellers and have created probably the best country to travel in. And the weather here is a perpetual spring. If you're feeling inspired to come and explore this wonderful country, here's a few travel tips:


Tips for Backpacker Travel to NZ:

1. Guide book: if there's one country, in which you don't need a guide book, it's NZ. If you're going to rent or buy a car and drive around (the best way to see NZ!), save the money you'd spend on a Lonely Planet and buy a good road atlas with campgrounds and points of interest. Every town in NZ has an I-site (information center) with heaps of brochures and helpful staff. You'll never be lost. Backpacking is a way of life in NZ and you can learn all you need to know from brochures, museum visits, roadside info panels and fellow backpackers.

2. Gear: Don't wait to buy any outdoor gear in NZ - you'll pay up to 3 times as much as you would in the US. Our tent was $200 in DC, but it was $600 in Queenstown(!) Regular Teva sandals cost $100 in NZ! So don't forget to bring all the essentials with you!

3. Work: If you want to work in NZ, you'll absolutely need 2 things: a tax IRD number and a NZ bank account. Both are free to get whether you have a work visa or not, but IRD number might take about 10 days to get, whereas opening of a bank account is immediate. If you're in NZ in the fruit picking season (Feb.-October), you're practically guaranteed to get work without any need for a work visa. There's such labor shortage in the fruit areas that orcharders couldn't care less whether you have a stamp in your passport or not. Do not waste your money on work permits unless the employer actually asks you for one, otherwise you might end up with an expensive sticker in your passport that no one cares to see. (That happened to us.)

4. Traveller's Cheques: Does anyone still travel with these? All you need here is a piece of plastic and you can get cash from any ATM at the best current exchange rate. Your overseas debit card gets treated here as a credit card, and a lot of places accept credit cards, but not all. EFTPOS, the local debit card, is accepted everywhere. Anyhow, getting around with your bank card from home will still be amazingly easy.

5. Trade Me: In NZ, anything that can be sold, can be found on the auction website trademe.co.nz. It's the Kiwi equivalent of craigslist in the US. If you want to buy and sell a used car for your trip, that's the place to go.

I can't think of anything else to add right now, but will update this as I think of it. I guess there's really not much to worry about when visiting NZ - it's an amazingly easy country to travel in. If you can make it, we definitely encourage everyone to come and see this place.

For now, we have to sign out. We will write back from Aussie. Until then - have a great spring and take care!